Dankology

Tiny northwestern town here - can't move for open mics, at least two or three venues putting on original bands, most pubs put covers bands or singers on regularly - we must have it pretty good.

Please listen, comment and share as you see fit...

Re burglaries - when a friend of mine was broken into, the robbers left two very nice guitars that he had out on stands but stole the two near-worthless ones he'd left in their cases. Convenience and portability clearly being the priority...

I think the whole point of musicians' interviews (outside of the highly technical but usually otherwise mundane/inane ones instrument mags) is to cater to the the very natural need the public have to better understand the people whose art has affected them. The artists themselves often value the opportunity to contextualize and add perspective. So the examples you list above are really the "normal" stuff: artists talking about the things their fans want to know about. This is not some "preoccupation with the inner artist" - this is someone doing the job that people want them to do: the alternative would be the unchallenging, technical, hagiographic approach of the instrument-specific magazines. Van has a long history of not indulging the former approach and often striving to characterize his art as "work", expressing frustration that interviewers (and people in general) are not sufficiently aware of the artists that he apparently holds dear. This interviewer seemed to know this and took a pragmatic approach and yet he still acted like a spoilt child, and didn't even have a pithy retort to hand. As I say above, he has no need to do any interviews - he could have made it part of his current contract or even provided interviewers with a list of pre-approved topics or questions. But he doesn't, he prefers to play the curmudgeon - when it would be far more eloquent (and befitting of his artistic legacy) to say nothing at all.

To be fair, I think she was trying to do the exact opposite of that and actually tried to engage him about the practicalities of his job rather than trying to tease out any hidden meanings. And she successfully called his bluff too (or rather he tried and failed to call hers) when the topic shifted onto his preferred jazz musicians. I'd wager that the journalist knew *exactly* what to expect and was taking a circumspect approach. Despite this Van, artlessly and irrelevantly, used all his standard "defenses"... I mean, does asking about why a couple of old songs have been exhumed really count as a "psychiatric interview" or "intellectual debate"? It almost sounds like he nearly let the facade slip when the journalist in desperation actually appealed to some sort of personal connection - the exact opposite of how many of his interviews play out. I'm a huge fan of his music but I've not read one word about Morrison that suggests he's anything other than a deeply unpleasant man who revels in being contrary. And I don't buy that he only entertains interviewers under record company duress: this is a man who has kept some of his finest work out of print for years in order to maintain industry grudges. And I'm fairly certain that the same old lags will be buying his current LP regardless of whether the broadsheets run a feature on it or not. I can only read him one of two ways: he's either constantly reaching out to connect (hence his massive output) but is uncomfortable with/embarrassed by this OR he genuinely is joylessly doing the only job he can, and just happens to be brilliant at it.

I realize that this is much-covered ground but I just wanted to have a bit of a grumble about my own fickleness. We did some recording earlier in the year for which I used an Aerodyne Jazz stung with flats which I was really very content with. As time went on I decided I wanted something a little pokier as the bass (a PJ, of course) was not really cutting through on some songs live. As a 40th birthday treat to myself not long afterwards I treated myself to a US Jazz with EMGs from the Marketplace here. It was strung with rounds that were a bit slender for me but the whole thing sounded great - nice and present both in rehearsal and live plus it was, improbably, lighter than the Aerodyne so my dodgy shoulder was happy too. Last week I went back to change one of the bass parts on the studio recordings and was gutted to hear the difference between the two basses. To the point that we left the old part as-is. I know that the original part had been subject to some EQ and had been recorded through a nicer desk but it was clear that the intrinsic sound was much more suited to the song. And more pleasing to my ear. So today I'm going to pull the Pyramids off the Aerodyne and see how they sound on the Jazz via its JVX pickups. If that doesn't float my boat I'm trying the other EMGs that came with the bass and if that doesn't help thicken up the sound I'll be open to suggestions. Unless they involve not using my lovely, light new bass. We supported a band the other week where the bassist had what seemed to be a Jazz Deluxe and played with a pick through an amp with loads of top end and still had a lovely thudding sound - I should've picked his brain.

It was "bongos" rather than washboard... The Fall were an interesting case though. Much like Beefheart and the Magic Band, the one individual really defined the band beyond any other member and yet there are still line-ups of each band that I would say are very much not The Fall or the Magic Band despite MES or Van Vliet still being present. (FWIW, I'm referring to the Fall post-2005 or so and the Magic Band around the time of Unconditionally Guaranteed)

Our XR18 cost £250 secondhand on Ebay - no significantly more than a new XR12...

What tablets does everyone use to control these? I've now bought a Kindle and a Samsung tablet second hand - neither of which had 5Ghz functionality (despite being advertised as such), which is, of course, the main advantage of using an external router. I just want a cheap tablet 8" - 10" screen, 5GHz wireless compatible - doesn't seem too much to ask...

...and in or around Manchester, you could do worse than coming and seeing Joan the Wad at the Eagle in Salford: Live version of forthcoming single here: https://t.co/WjB2fuB7h9?amp=1 Tickets here: https://fatso.ma/MOdT The main act (Juliper Sky) sound very promising too. joanthewadmusic.co.uk

I dunno, mine (linked to above) struggled to be heard above an entirely unamplified small acoustic guitar and single vocalist. I could hear it ok but it apparently did not project into the small room at all.

I've got a fretless one of these that I use a lot at home and have gigged once or twice: http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Crafter_BA400_EQ_N.html I think I got it for about £250 (give or take) on Ebay. I believe Alice Cooper's bassist uses the fretted one. Make of that what you will.

Why, thank you. Although the Waddup track is by someone else who inexplicably shares our name. I'm not sure how well vocal tips via the non-singing bassist will go but I'll look out for an appropriate opportunity...

I've videoed possibly hundreds of other people's gigs over the years and yet still can experience what feels like a tautening of every sinew in my body as I sense the camera coming over to me. The way I try to think about it is that the discomfort I feel is a result of not wanting to look like a @r$e - but if I did look like an @r$e it would be apparent to everyone in the room, whether there was a camera there or not. At least with a video you can edit down such moments to the bare minimum - no such luxury in real life... Also, videos have let me notice things I can do something about, such as the horrible perma-grimmace I used to have - and also how much better everyone looks when they are not conspicuously self-conscious. I do hope you crack it - there's something immensely satisfying about seeing yourself utterly lost in a song. This is the most recent one we've shared and there's lots to fault: it's a cover that we've only ever felt our way through, it's the hottest day of the year, so we're all sweaty so I'm in shorts and there's no hat to hide the thinning hair plus I left the bass muted much longer than intended at the beginning... But seeing ourselves absolutely immersed in the performance has been incredibly useful to us.

This was one of the reasons I moved to the Jazz w/rounds - we have one song that benefits from the odd pop here and there and the PJ with flats wasn't letting them cut through. Having said that, I like my flats quite well worn in so a newer set may well have been better. Listening through last night's rehearsal recording, I now have the opposite problem: the pops sound horribly tinny and thin. There are likely some technique issues here...

This couldn't have been worse timed for me - just yesterday I decided I was a Jazz-with-rounds convert and had decided to sell my flats-equipped PJ... I might just hold onto it until after next batch of recordings now. Damn you, Basschat.

I think that's exactly the point: put up a misleading attention-grabbing headline and it might work as clickbait (look at all those YouTube videos with titles like "why you should never buy a five-string" and "why all the pros only use a Precision bass"). But a good number of people remember only the headline - and with something like this and when it's hard enough to convince musicians to wear ear protection before it's too late, that requires a robust debate of the available evidence. I'm not really sure what you were trying to achieve here. The debate you have generated seems worthwhile and educational but you seem to object to that. Did you really just want to put up a post titled "earplugs don't work" and hope everyone just nodded and chucked out their ear protection?

I am, as it happens. And I have to say that this sounds like tabloid-level nonsense in that a half-truth is being discussed out of context in order to suggest an attention-grabbing non-truth. I have no doubt that prolonged extreme sound levels can defeat the protection provided by ear plugs - whether by overcoming the protection they afford or by transmission through the bone but I also have no doubt that most musicians would rarely, if ever, find themselves in that sort of situation. If you need ear defenders, you need to turn down would be my rule of thumb. I'd be interested to know if this chap was a medical doctor with an interest in audiology or an audiologist (with a PhD). And also, as I said before, what commercial interests might be influencing the advice he is giving (or the apparently sensationalist way he is delivering it).

I'd be asking about what possible commercial interests might be at play in the formulation of this man's opinion.

I do like the look of that X-Touch... Might be one for the Ebay watch list though as I've spent up on the mixer itself and the next thing we're looking at is IEMs - have recently finished the 70+ page thread here on that topic. Thanks for all the pointers - no doubt I'll be back here with a list of queries after our first rehearsal attempt with it.

I had put a 50Hz high pass on the vox and overheads (actually 51Hz as my mousepad thing wouldn't let me get to 50) but I'll have a go at applying it across the board. Other things I've just done (and would appreciate hearing any strong opinions on): -added all the drums to a DCA group for quick global adjustments -added everything other than the samples/loops and the walk-on music to one mute group, and the looper to another mute group (so we can mute the instruments at the end of the last song but have scope to leave a loop going for a while afterwards). -added the appropriate noise gate presets to the vox, kick and snare channels (but anticipating having to tweak these) -added two reverbs, a delay and the stereo combinator to the FX rack - possibly at the recommendation of the FB group and/or extensive Googling... -made sure that the all the buses highlight the channel strips in bright yellow to avoid possible sends-on-faders confusion

Yep - that's already in place and working nicely.

[this has been cross-posted with the Facebook XR18 group - so apologies to anyone reading this twice] Hi everyone... Have just picked up a secondhand XR18 for our 5-piece band (keys, gtr, bass, drums, samples/loops with 3x vox) and am very cautiously making my first move away from analogue mixers. Will be using it in rehearsal for the first time next week and for a couple of gigs in a month's time. I think I've got most of the basics clear in my head: have got inputs labelled and grouped, basic monitor mixes assigned to a couple of the auxes, couple of snapshots saved, external router all up and running, fixed IP, Reaper properly set up to record etc etc. I was just looking for some advice about the FX. We aren't going to be using any heavy duty "creative" effects (well, not just yet) so I was thinking about just having a couple of reverbs - one for the mains and one for the foldback. Is this the sort of thing that people do - or should I be having a compressor and/or a graphic EQ on there too? Would really appreciate some real world experience of how people are using the effects for small club gigs... Many thanks!

Brilliant - thank you!

Apologies for awakening an old thread but I've had a couple of comments about the level coming off my GP12SMX combo's DI. I am intending to pick up an Orchid DI (really like the reviews vs price for these) but wasn't sure how to wire the lead needed to go from the XLR out on the amp to the unbalance jack-in on the DI box. I've got a handful of short balanced XLR>TRS leads but I'm guessing these might not do the trick.